I belong with you
by S.S. Marauder
Summary: My home is where my heart is, and since you hold my heart, you are my home. Jily one shot. Petunia sends Lily a letter telling her she's not to return home for the holidays, but James helps Lily realise that maybe 'home' isn't necessarily where you grew up.


This was written for the HPFC Start and Stop Challenge. The word I had to use in my first and last sentence was 'Home'

...

 _Your **h** **ome**_ _will always be the place for which you feel the deepest affection, no matter where you are.,_ Lily remembered sadly as she sat in the common room reading the letter Petunia had just sent her, trying desperately to stop the tears before they began, as she knew they would. Her mother had told her that right before she went to Hogwarts. Glancing down at the letter in her hands, Lily couldn't help but doubt her mothers words.

" _Don't bother coming for Christmas."_ Petunia had written.

" _Stay at that Freak school of yours - everyone will be much better off."_

 _"I don't want Vernon meeting you."_

The horrible words written by her sister swam through Lily's head, and she was grateful the common room was empty because she didn't want anyone to see the tears streaming down her face.

Petunia had told her that Lily wasn't allowed to return to Cokesworth that Christmas because she was bringing her boyfriend Vernon to meet their parents and he was staying for the holidays. Apparently Lily would scare him off with her abnormalities.

Lily considered that the worst part of this was that Petunia had told their parents Lily would rather stay at Hogwarts with her friends than spend Christmas with her family.

She could visit her parents regardless, tell them she'd changed her mind and decided not to stay at Hogwarts, but she didn't want to make things worse with Petunia than they already were, and she knew that if she did this, her entire Christmas would be spent fighting with her sister.

 _No,_ Lily decided, _I'd be better off here at Hogwarts than spending all of Christmas with Petunia._ This thought didn't make it hurt any less and the head girl resolved into another fit of tears, mourning the loss of the bond she'd once shared with her sister.

She was so preoccupied with the letter sitting on her lap, she didn't notice the messy-haired, bespectacled boy coming down the stairs.

For this reason she jumped quite high when he spoke.

"Lils? Are you okay?" James asked as he approached her tentatively, in case she'd rather be left alone.

Although they had come a very long way since fifth year, he still felt the need to thread lightly around her (much to her annoyance, though James didn't know this).

They'd come to peace terms at the beginning of sixth year, agreeing on leaving each other alone, however quite unintentionally had become rather good friends. This was mostly due to the fact that they shared most of their other friends, at first but overtime it had become more than that. They'd begun spending a lot more time together without needing their other friends to be around, and when they were made head boy and girl together, they made a great team.

James didn't ask her out anymore and despite the fact he wasn't very good at hiding it, managed to keep Lily completely unaware of the fact he still completely fancied her.

Lily for her part found James much easier to get along with than she could've believed and in the past year had opened up to him more than she had to anyone else. She'd told him about all her problems with her sister or fears about the war and he'd told her his worries for his ailing parents and his plan to fight after school.

To almost the entire schools surprise, but to theirs most of all, Lily and James had become very important in each others lives.

James was one of Lily's best friends, if not her best, and Lily was almost considered a Marauder, not only in James' eyes but in Sirius, Remus and Peters as well, as she had aided them in many acts of mischief, claiming that being head girl did not mean she couldn't have fun.

Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand she nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak past the lump in her throat, so she kept her gaze on the fire.

James made his way around the couch to sit beside her, "do you want to talk about it?" he asked her, noticing the tears streaming down her face, refusing to stop.

Lily shrugged, still not meeting his gaze. She didn't much feel up for dealing with the way her heart skidded in her chest and butterflies errupted in her stomach around him right now, but she also didn't really want to be alone, and he was easy to talk to about her problems, she knew from experience.

"Petunia." she croaked out, her voice slightly hoarse from crying, by way of explanation.

He leant back into the couch, watching her watch the fire and his heart ached for this amazing girl who deserved the entirety of both the wizarding and muggle world's, yet got scorned in both.

"What did she say?" James asked. He knew from experience that she wouldn't want sympathy or reassurances that it would all work out in the end, she just wasn't that type of person. Either was he for that matter.

Lily finally turned away from the fire to hand him the letter Petunia had sent her. She watched his brow furrow as he read, noticed his jaw clench in anger.

"Thats a load of bullshit." he told her fiercely. "You have more of a right to be there than that bloody prat-" he hadn't met Vernon but he figured anyone who'd want to go out with Petunia couldn't be nice "-who your parents probably won't even _like._ "

Lily's tears had stopped by now but she still looked miserable. "It doesn't matter though, even if I wrote to my parents and told them I was coming home, Petunia would make my Christmas miserable and probably ruin it for the whole family. And it would really upset my parents if we were arguing the whole time. They'd be heartbroken if they found out she'd written this letter, I can't do that to them."

James ran a hand through his hair as he studied her. "So your not going to go then?"

Lily shook her head, "I'll just stay at Hogwarts. It'll be kind of nice to spend my last Christmas here anyway, seeing how we'll have graduated next year."

James knew that she was only pretending that she actually wanted to stay. He had a better idea.

"You're not spending Christmas at Hogwarts." he told her firmly.

Lily looked at him in surprise.

"Your spending it with me and Sirius."

Despite the fact she was still miserable, Lily couldn't help but blush a little.

Shaking her head she replied, "Oh no, really James, I couldn't, you're spending Christmas with your family and I'd hate to intrude, I mean, thank you, but it's really alright, I'll stay at Hogwarts and-"

James, with a slightly amused, yet sincere expression, cut off her ramblings. "I wouldn't offer if I didn't want you there. Mom would love to have another girl in the house and dad appreciates anyone he can ramble about potions to. Sirius loves you, and Remus and Pete are going to be around loads so if you get sick of us you can hang out with them. You'll have a much better time than at Hogwarts."

Usually Lily would have argued further, insisting that she didn't want to intrude on another family, but maybe it was the way James was looking at her, with such a sincere and caring expression, or maybe it was the fact she really didn't want to be alone for Christmas, or maybe it was the growing feelings that had been plaguing her for this boy since they returned from summer holidays, it could've even been a combination of all three reasons, but whatever it was, Lily soon found herself nodding.

"Okay."

The wide grin that appeared on the head boys face soon brought a smile to her own, despite the fact that her cheeks were still tear stained and her throat felt raw from the crying.

They sat in front of the fire, with James slowly making that smile grow wider and wider, eventually drawing her into hysterical laughter as they talked the night away.

Lily decided then, that despite her relationship with her sister, she was happy, because James had his arm thrown over her shoulder in a friendly manner (which was fine for now, she could definitely work with friendly) and Lily felt she was exactly where she needed to be.

They say that home is where the heart is, and Lily felt perfectly at _**home**_ right where she was, with her heart belonging to the wonderful idiot sitting beside her.


End file.
